It was not just the mask stuff, but how he continued to try and lead his audience on when they started to call him out instead of doing the right thing and graciously acknowledge the error. Instead it was half assed, then doubled down and then he finally backed off for a while but then out of nowhere brings it up again. I think this is a case of being right too many times...he finally got persuaded by his own hypnosis

I even own, read, and enjoyed one of his books. He used to be sensible & reasonable. Dude took a nosedive harder than Alaska Airlines Flight 261